An important book that addresses the missing components of most sex-ed programs.
A teen sex-education guide that emphasizes consent.
An author for teens and middle graders as well as a sex-education lecturer on college campuses, Freitas shapes what she’s learned from the students she works with to guide teens on their own paths as sexual beings. A lengthy, philosophical opening may lose some readers, but it starts teens thinking critically about their “relational ethic” in regard to friendships. The author then expands this framework to a “sexual ethic.” Her candid, conversational style is inclusive, recognizing both that relationships aren’t a one-size-fits-all heterosexual construct and the intersections that race, religion, and other identities add to the discussions. To create a sexual ethic, Freitas encourages teens to consider such topics as their own sexual identity, societal norms and stereotypes, and their presence on social media. These contemplations, in turn, build upon one another, culminating in a look at the nuanced nature of consent (rather than a simple yes-or-no response), how it can end sexual violence, and its relation to desire and love. Each section concludes with several questions that prompt self-reflection and journaling. The author avoids shaming readers, instead both acknowledging how some religions constrict sexual freedom and encouraging respect for personal religious choices. At odds throughout, however, are middle-grade and YA authors’ advice to their 12-year-old selves and an authorial tone more suited to complex, mature issues like vulnerability and the hookup culture of college campuses.
An important book that addresses the missing components of most sex-ed programs. (further reading, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64614-018-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tribute to young people’s resistance in the face of oppression.
In 1983 South Korea, Kim was learning to navigate university and student political activism.
The daughter of modest restaurant owners, Kim was apolitical—she just wanted to make her parents proud and be worthy of her tuition expenses. Following an administrator’s advice to avoid trouble and pursue extracurriculars, she joined a folk dance team where she met a fellow student who invited her into a banned book club. Kim was fearful at first, but her thirst for knowledge soon won out. As she learned the truth of her country’s oppressive fascist political environment, Kim became closer to the other book club members while the authorities grew increasingly desperate to identify and punish student dissidents. The kinetic manhwa drawing style skillfully captures the personal and political history of this eye-opening memoir. The disturbing elements of political corruption and loss of human rights are lightened by moving depictions of sweet, funny moments between friends as well as deft political maneuvering by Kim herself when she was eventually questioned by authorities. The art and dialogue complement each other as they express the tension that Kim and her friends felt as they tried to balance school, family, and romance with surviving in a dangerous political environment. References to fake news and a divisive government make this particularly timely; the only thing missing is a list for further reading.
A tribute to young people’s resistance in the face of oppression. (Graphic memoir. 14-adult)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-945820-42-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Iron Circus Comics
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Unapologetic and unflinching: a critical read.
Through honest and powerful vignettes, Jewell’s latest stitches together a collective memoir of formative experiences of educational racism and American schooling by people of the global majority.
Anchored by the author’s narrative of navigating school as a “light-skinned Black biracial cis-female” in a working-class neighborhood of a city in New York state, the work incorporates both her experiences of being labeled and othered in school as well as the first-person experiences of people of various ages, ethnicities, races, and genders, who write about how they navigated and were affected by systemic racism in their K-12, college, and postgraduate educations. The contributors include well-known authors of young people’s literature including Joanna Ho, Minh Lê, and Randy Ribay; writers and educators such as Lorena and Roberto Germán, Torrey Maldonado, and Gayatri Sethi; and two entries by teens from Portland, Oregon. Alongside stories of segregation, mistreatment by white educators, hypervisibility, surveillance, stereotyping, pigeonholing, and exclusion, this collection asks readers to “envision what freedom in schools might be.” These bold tales of truth telling are interspersed with historical facts, definitions, and anti-racist pedagogy that emphasize and contextualize the reality that, while experiences of racism in educational systems evolve with each generation, one constant is that schools are microcosms of larger systems of inequality and institutional oppression in the world beyond classroom walls.
Unapologetic and unflinching: a critical read. (resources, recommended reading, references, about the contributors) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780358638315
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Versify/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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